Dark Chocolate, Please: Consumers of Bitter Products Have Antisocial Personal Traits More Often

Let’s be honest: not all of us like healthy food. Drinking alcohol is another ingredient of a standard modern lifestyle. However, you might want to reevaluate your passion for gin and tonic: according to a recent research, those who consume bitter food are more likely to prove to be psychopaths.

Image Credit: elciudadano.cl

The science behind

They carried out two experiments. The number of participants made up 903 volunteers. They had to complete several tasks, the first of which was to fill out a questionnaire. There were lots of sweet, bitter and other kinds of drinks/food in the list they were provided with: the participants had to pick the options they liked (by rating them) and consumed often. Having rated the products, they filled out another questionnaire, which included questions regarding their personal traits. The parameters the researchers were interested in covered emotional stability, level of aggression and other related traits.

The questions were rather weird, though. For example, they volunteers were asked whether they tormenting people is a thing they enjoy.

Having analyzed the experiment results, the investigators found that those people who prefer bitter food tend to have more antisocial traits.

Among the food that the potential psychopaths chose were tonic, dark chocolate and coffee. Does it ring a bell?

The opposite was also true: the participants who tried to avoid bitted food appeared to be kind and more sociable.

Are dark chocolate consumers dangerous?

However alarming the study results may seem, it should be noted that such data is not very reliable. The volunteers’ personal traits were self-reported, which means it could be just wishful thinking: the fact that they claimed to have malevolent traits does not prove that they do.

The thing is, if your friend asks for another glass of gin and tonic, you should not run away in fear. Perhaps it’s just an occasional drink, or he just likes the taste of it, while other bitter products seem to be disgusting to him.

Eating radish is a sign of psychopath?

No. The research is being widely discussed, and most headlines scream that eating bitter products means the person likes killing people. That’s not true.

The study results revealed NO association between consumption of certain products and high psychopathy scores. It means there was no particular product from the list which was preferred by the cruel and the aggressive.

The only association found, which was weak, by the way, was that the general preference of bitter products was found in those who had more self-reported (!) antisocial traits.

Is there any other evidence?

The association found is weak and does not prove there is a link. However, there are other hypotheses, according to which such kinds of personalities can be shaped by genes. Apart from the research stated above, there is no evidence suggesting that preferring bitter food is a sign of being a psychopath.

The reason we are emphasizing it is that those who have come across the news may find it surprising and start looking for such traits in themselves. There’s no need for such unmotivated stress. Keep on eating radish if you like it and chewing dark chocolate – it’s more likely to benefit your health rather than make you a maniac.

After all, we all want a piece of something bitter from time to time – just don’t make it your staple food.